Business communication systems presently have the capability to establish a so-called audiographics conference call among a plurality of telephone station sets and associated display terminals. In such arrangements, the voice connections are established in conventional fashion. The data connections are established, on the other hand, by having each participant "log into" a central computer. Thereafter, the conferees may each view on the display of their respective display terminals a document stored in the central computer. If one of the conferees edits the document by making changes thereto, then the central computer distributes such changes to the other conferenced display terminals.
One limitation of such prior conferencing arrangements is that the distribution of data is controlled by a central resource, rather then by the conferenced terminals. As such, no facility is provided to allow one of the conferees to bring up on the display of his/her terminal a document stored in the conferee's terminal, and share that document with the other conferees.
Another limitation of such prior conferencing arrangements is their inability to include in a conference connection display terminals which they do not directly serve. What this means is that a prospective conferee not directly served by such prior business communication systems may only participate in the audio portion of the conference connection. As such, that conferee cannot view the document displayed on the display terminals of the other conferees, even though the conferee may have the facility to do so, i.e. a display terminal.
The aforementioned limitations are particularly noticeable whenever the conferees require additional information not in their possession. In such an instance, the originator of the conference session using so-called softkeys displayed on the screen of his/her terminal may place a telephone call to the person having the information. If that person is directly served by the respective business communication system, then the originator may add that person's station set and display terminal to the conference connection. As such, the newly added conferee may bring up a centrally stored document on his/her display terminal, and edit the document to include the sought-after information for distribution to the other conferees. If, on the other hand, the person having the sought-after information is not directly served by the communication system, but may be connected thereto via, for example, the public switched network, then the originator can only add that person's station set to the conference connection. As such, the conferees obtain a verbal account of the sought-after information, rather than receiving a copy thereof for display on their respective terminals.
A further limitation occurs in the instance where it may not be desirable to add a person to an established conference connection to obtain sought-after information. To avoid adding such a person to an established conference connection, prior conferencing arrangements require one of the conferees, preferably the originator, to place his/her conference connection on hold, and then establish a telephone call to the telephone station set of the person having the sought-after information. Upon obtaining a verbal account of the sought-information, the originator must then terminate the telephone call and remove the hold condition. Thereafter, the originator may verbally share the sought-after information with the other conferees. A better approach would be one which allows the originator to establish a second conference connection to obtain a so-called hard copy of the sought-after information for storage in the originator's terminal and distribution to the other conferees.